Koukartsev’s parents follow him to Ankara as he is following their path in volleyball

The Koukartsevs are happy to see their son after half a year

Ankara,
Turkey,
September 1, 2013. The best scorer of Argentina’s
U21 team Pablo Koukartsev is the son of famous volleyball parents, who
travelled to Turkey from Spain in order
to see his performance in the FIVB Volleyball Men's U21 World Championship.

Pablo Koukartsev was born in Argentina nineteen years ago but he spent half
of his life in different countries, having lived in Spain for the last seven years.
Although both of his parents were volleyball players in the past, his sports
career did not start in volleyball.

”I started with swimming, then I went into basketball,
and after that my mother started to train me in volleyball. But this was when I
was in kindergarten, so for the last fourteen years I have been in volleyball,”
Pablo says.

His father Sergey Koukartsev played in the national
team of the Soviet Union in the 1990 World
League and in the 1990 World Cup.He was
also in the national team of Russia
in 1997 and 1998. In the meantime he also played for clubs in Argentina, Japan and other countries. Pablo’s
mother Lyudmila Koukartseva started her volleyball career in the Soviet Union and later continued as a volleyball coach.
Now, however, both of them are out volleyball, but wish that their son continue
their path in the sport.

”We want him to continue our path in volleyball. We do
not know yet for which club he will play, but in regards to the national teams,
Argentina
is the country he was born in and we want him to develop his skills as part of
the Argentinean national team.It is
great for him to play in Argentina,
because the level of Argentina’s
volleyball is high and there are more possibilities for my son to develop his
skills and his career,’’ Lyudmila Koukartseva said.

Both of Pablo’s parents came to Ankara to see their son playing in the World
Championship, but are not happy with the team’s results.

”Sure we are here for this championship.But, also, we have not seen our son for half
a year, so we wanted to see him and his level of play,” Pablo’s mother
continued. ”I think the level of this competition is high and the organisation
is good, but I am disappointed with the results of my son’s team. We were
really upset when they could not make it to the semifinals. But still this is
the first world championship for him.”

Sergey Koukartsev shares the same feelings: ”I am
really upset about the last games so I do not even want to comment on it.”

Despite living in Spain
with his parents, Pablo has been spending a lot of time in his native Argentina,
training and playing with their national teams.

”I have played with the seniors in the South American
Championship and we took the second place,” he said. ”Now I am here. Maybe I will also participate
in the U23 World Championship in October.”

So Pablo is clearly following his parents’ wish to
continue in their footsteps in volleyball.